For Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta foundation studies professor Marcia R. Cohen, color theory is more than a course she teaches; it’s a way of life. From her one-of-a-kind checkered glasses and her exclusively two-toned wardrobe to the black-and-white rabbits that run around her backyard "like the Teletubbies," Cohen has color coordination down to a science. She lives the visual metaphor of the "unseen spectrum" behind the extremes of black and white.
Cohen said color's ability to communicate as a sign and a symbol is particularly interesting to her. For example, the role of color in the English language is apparent in phrases such as getting the blues, having a rosy outlook or receiving a golden opportunity.
SCAD-Atlanta professor Marcia R. Cohen sees the world in more than just black and white.
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In Cohen's art, she has been influenced by "color communication," both in a cultural sense and in the natural world, she said.
"Human use of color has many parallels with nature and it is precisely this confluence of ideas that has been so influential for my art," she wrote in an artist statement for her prolific series of paintings, "Summer Reading."
Throughout her 32-year career, Cohen has made an indelible mark on the world of color theory. She has exhibited, lectured and participated in scholarly panels throughout the United States and in France and Spain. She also has won numerous awards, grants and fellowships, and in 2001 she was awarded the prestigious King Baudouin Foundation U.S. Cultural Exchange Fellowship to study in the Netherlands and Germany. While in Maastricht, Netherlands, she was the only American artist chosen to participate in the study of pigments and paint preparation of 16th- and 17th-century artists’ palettes. While in Germany, she visited various archives and museums to study the color theories of the Bauhaus movement and Johann Wolfgang van Goethe.
Cohen's artwork is in numerous private collections, as well as the permanent collections of the High Museum of Art, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University, and the U.S. Information Agency in Washington, D.C., among others.
In addition, three of her works on paper from the permanent collection of Atlanta's Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia at SunTrust Plaza, 303 Peachtree St., are on view as part of the exhibition "Drawn in Georgia." On Dec. 7, 6 p.m., Cohen will host a gallery talk about her work, which will be displayed through Jan. 20, 2007.
A native of Detroit, Cohen said her upbringing "under the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement" shaped her character and artistic development.
"Detroit was a tough place to grow up," she said. "When I enrolled at Wayne State [University], race riots had burned downtown Detroit."
After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from Wayne State University, she left "the gritty, urban environment for the serene Southwest," where she earned a Master of Arts from the University of New Mexico.
The impetus for her career in art stemmed from the mentorship of the "many wonderful and strong women painters" on the college faculty, she said. "Because of the mentoring I had at that pivotal time [in the late 1960s], I’ve always valued the unique dialogue that goes on between faculty and students."
In turn, Cohen takes pride in giving her students the kind of academic experience that involves more than drawing techniques and the color wheel, she said.
"I've learned that mentoring is not just about teaching art … it's about teaching life," she explained. "The disciplines we learn as artists — hard work, practice, learning from your mistakes and pulling yourself back up — will carry [students] through their careers and lives."
"I like to challenge my students to create a little bit of poetry in their work … to think on their own and trust their instincts," she said. "I want to nurture their individuality, so that when they go out into the work world they will listen carefully to their own voice."
She stresses that students need to think on their feet and develop a keen eye for the world. "You have to be spontaneous. There’s no syllabus for life!," she said.
A 31-year veteran of the Atlanta College of Art, Cohen said she is excited to see the freshness that students bring into the classroom from year to year. She said her transition to SCAD was straightforward.
"I like to live in the present. Both schools are so unique; there is just no point of comparison," she explained. "I had a great ride at ACA — the best — and now I’m on a new journey."
Article by Turia Stark Williams, communications manager for SCAD-Atlanta. Photo by Ben Dashwood.
